Three Keys
by Tai-Gainsborough
Summary: This is my first story and true to my profile it contains my own character plus my friends might show up later. You learn the mother of the character in this, and in later chapters you learn the father, but if you want you can try to guess him in reviews


Cody Edwards (Disclaimer I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or anything related to it, but I do own the characters Tai, and Madison so leave those two alone dagnabit) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like is there anything beyond this world or is this all there is?" (At this point it shows Tai falling through a bunch of fire looking as though he is asleep. To describe Tai picture Kai from the new Beyblade V Force show.) Then the familiar song Simple and Clean starts playing and Tai wakes up from his trance standing in a virtual reality game he takes off the helmet and runs to the window of the second story arcade he works at and is greeted by the warm sunshine. He looks down and sees that the sidewalk is empty below and jumps down landing then slipping and hitting the ground. Cion (yes I'm pulling more square games into this if your to dumb to know he's the guy with the bandage on his face from the Bouncer) pulls him to his feet and rolls his eyes at his friends stupidity Tai turns and looks back up at the window he jumped from and sees Madison standing there grinning at him so he runs back inside but gets caught in a rush of people and he spots Madison standing at the end of the crowd as he fights to get to her. She has a worried look on her face as he struggles then suddenly the crowds gone and he falls down from all the left over force he had built up. She walks over and smiles down at him her blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail and hanging down at him, he stands up and brushes himself off. Suddenly the floor he's standing on melts away and he drops down into an infinite darkness.  
  
"Where am I?" Tai asks curiously he's standing on a large tower with Kairi's picture on it, "and who is this picture of?" Out of nowhere three pedestals rise from the floor one bearing a sword, one holding a staff, and the last had a shield placed upon it. "Give your power shape and it will give you strength." The calm voice seems to come from the air itself. "Ok I guess that means pick a weapon." Tai said casually trying to keep his cool even though he was really about to freak out. So he walks up and jumps to the sword and the voice speaks to him again. "The power of the warrior, invincible courage, a sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you choose?" "Hmm. no," Tai says with a serious look on his face, "even though it is courage I can't accept a weapon of destruction." So he jumps down and walks to the shield. "The power of the guardian, kindness to aid your friends, a shield to repel all. Is this the power you choose?" "Yes," Tai remarked, "it is that sounds perfect for me." "Now," the voice said, "what will you give up in return?" Tai already knew he walked over to the staff and before the voice could speak verified his decision. The voiced returned again though "you have chosen the power of the guardian, you have given up the power of the mystic, is this the form you choose?" Tai closes his eyes looking very dramatic "It is." Suddenly the ground beneath him shatters and he falls once again this time onto a platform with a young girl with blonde hair and a blue dress and whit apron thingy. "Sometimes," the voice spoke, "you will be required to fight." As the voice says this a little cricket-ish creature appears, it seems to be made from darkness itself. The small creature is soon joined by more of it's kind, and one of them dives at Tai. "Ha," Tai laughs as he slams the creature to the ground with the shield and smashes it, "is this all you got?" As he is defeating one of them another jumps at him and slashes his back, pain shoots through him. "ARGHH." Tai remarks in pain, and spins around smashing the second creatures face in and breaking its neck. As it disappears the others retreat in fear and the one he killed leaves behind strange green orbs. He steps toward these to investigate what they are and when he gets close enough they drag themselves to him and he feels the cut on his back heal. "Well these are pretty useful." He thinks aloud, "but they won't do as well as a potion." "These orbs," the voice says, "will heal your health others will replenish your magic." "Magic?" Tai questions, "I don't know any magic, and this is all starting to sound like some kind of video game. What's going on." Tai asks this of the voice but gets no answer. "Fine ignore me," he says trying to seem like it doesn't matter, "I don't care anyway." Suddenly a path of floating stained glass appears leading toward another platform. "Let me guess go up to that one too?" Tai says sarcastically. Once again there is no reply. As Tai runs up the path he looks over the edge into the infinite void. "I wonder what would happen if I fell." Tai thinks to himself, "It definitely wouldn't be pretty." He reaches the next tower and the voice returns while Tai try's to decide whether to listen or not since it ignored him. "The closer you get to the light," it states, "the mightier your shadow becomes." As it says this Tai turns around and sees that his shadow is much larger, and notices that it is starting to stand up. As it rises he slowly backs away from it. "But don't be afraid." The voice continues. "Don't worry I'm not." Tai remarks. He holds up his hand and the shield appears once again in his hand. His shadow has changed and now doesn't resemble him in the least. Its hair has become long and looks like tentacles and some of the strands have rapped themselves around its face so that only its eyes are visible, and they were glowing a bright yellow. Its feet are long and crooked and there is a large heart shape cut completely through its chest so that you could see what was behind it. "This must be another one of those things that were attacking me earlier," Tai thinks allowed, "except it's grown." As he watches it the creature pulls its arm back and it begins to charge energy into it. Then it slams its fist down at Tai, but Tai dodges past it however the energy spreads out and more of the tiny creatures begin forming. While it is creating these Tai runs up its arm and begins smashing it in the face with his shield however it soon pulls back up and he is dropped to the ground. One of the small enemies dives toward him, but he slams it with his weapon and sends it flying into a group of them with bone shattering force destroying most of them. While the rest are dazed he turns and focuses on the big guy again. It is on its knees with both of its fists on the ground behind it and they are shooting beams of dark energy that begin traveling right at Tai. He blocks the first with the shield then dodges past the others and once again jumps to the shoulder of the beast and begins hacking at its head. After hitting it enough the creature is defeated. It begins writhing and Tai falls to the ground the shield disappearing. The creature begins to melt and Tai gets caught in the liquid darkness and the voice once again speaks, "What ever you do don't be afraid. You wield one of the mightiest weapons of all." Tai is pulled under the darkness and looses consciousness. "Tai do you ever go home?" Tai heard a voice fussing at him in a kind manner, "I mean I know you hang out here a lot but this is the first time I've seen you sleeping here." Tai opened his eyes and looked at who was picking on him, it was Madison. "I must have been dreaming," Tai stated standing up and noticing Cion standing watching the two, "I was in this strange place, and you were there, and so were you." As he says this he points to his two best friends. "Was Aunty Em there too Dorothy?" Cion laughs at his own joke. "What about the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion?" Madison finishes the joke, and the two of them collapse into a laughing fit. "You don't understand," Tai argues, "it was so real and there was this giant evil entity and I had to fight it and all these little versions of it too." "Sounds to me," Madison says as she stands up, "like you've been playing too many of these games." "Yeah Tai," Cion says standing up, "I mean you never even read the warning labels on these virtual reality ones. I mean look at this one. The use of this machine for extensive amounts of time can result in seizures and the becoming of a vegetable." "Cion," Tai said cocking an eye brow, "it doesn't say I could become a vegetable." "Sure it does," he replies pointing to the sign, "right here." "Umm. Cion?" Madison says with a curious look on her face, "are you sure you passed English this last year?" "Does it matter?" Cion states smiling, "After all I have officially graduated from Traverse High. Unlike you two." "That's because you're five years older then us retard." Tai argues, "Did you fail math too?" "Hey little guy," Cion says lifting Tai up by the shirt, "I made good grades for your information." Tai kicks his friend in the stomach causing Cion to release his grasp on him. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of sticking around in here." Madison says as she walks to the door. "Yeah me too that last thing in the games creeped me out." Tai says he picks up his skate board and walks down the stairs after Madison. Then turns around and looks in the room he just left Cion in. "You coming?" Tai asks his friend who is still holding his gut where he got kicked, "or you going to sit there crying all day?" Cion stands up and walks after his two friends. "That was just a lucky kick." He says as he passes Tai. As they walk (well as the other two walk Tai is really just rolling on his board) Tai hits a rock and trips. His skate board rolls into an alley and through an open basement window. "Crap," Tai says getting a little annoyed, "you guys go ahead I'll get it." "Like we were going to wait any way." Cion says as they head off. Tai walks over to the window when he notices something move behind a garbage can. "Just some cat." Tai mutters. He slips through the window and into the basement. "Where did that stupid thing roll to?" he asks no one as he scans the dark room. That's when he sees it, his Gundam Wing skateboard (A.N. I don't own GW but I do own a skate board like Tai's) flipped over next to a box of junk. He walks over and picks it up and suddenly feels the presents of eyes staring at him. He turns around just in time to see one of those cricket things like in his dream diving at him. He smacks it with the board but all it does is land and jump again. "Oh man," Tai says starting to get panicked, "that shield I had was magic but this skate board isn't." the thing is flying right at him he dodges it and jumps up through the window he had entered through. Then throws his board down and skates off quickly to find his friends. "Tai," Cion says as his friend catches up to them, "why are you so pail?" "You look like you've seen a ghost." Madison says looking concerned. "Well," Tai says as he catches his breath, "I'm worked up because I saw. ONE OF THOSE!" Tai points as one of the creatures forms in front of the group. "That's what scared you?" Cion says looking at the little thing. "It's kind of cute." Madison says walking over to it. The thing dives at her but Tai rams it causing it to smash into a wall. "Ok," Cion says a little bewildered, "But still it's just that one little thing." Suddenly more of them appear one after the other until there are about 13 or so of them standing there watching the three of them. "You guy's go get help," Tai says looking back at his friends, "I'll fend them off." Cion and Madison hurry off to get some one. "You think I'm afraid of you?" Tai says looking at the small army, "Well I'm not so bring it on." The creature dived at him and Tai braced himself for impact. Suddenly he felt something appear in his hands. When he opened his eyes he saw what looked like a large key in his hands but it had teeth at both ends. "What's this?" Tai wondered out loud. He could feel magical energies flowing through it and into him. The creature was still coming at him. "Well I may not know what this is," Tai said spinning his new weapon in the air, "but I know what to do with it." He skipped back a little and lunged the staff forward stabbing right through the creature and causing it to disintegrate before his very eyes. The other creatures backed up from him a little ways. "I wonder what brought this key to me." Tai questioned. Then he remembered the voice in his dream, "The power of the guardian, kindness to aid your friends." "That's it," Tai remarked, "it must have come when it saw I was willing to die to save my friends. Tough brake for you guys." He said as he dove at the horrible creatures. He slashed through them hacking away defeating them two at a time. One dove at him he spun under it and stabbed straight up killing it. When again he was the only person standing in the street he noticed a woman with black hair and a head band standing in front of the hotel that was in town. She motioned for him to follow her so he did. She led him to a red door and pushed it open. "Mom," Tai said as he saw his mother, Aeris Gainsborough, sitting on the bed of the room, "I didn't expect that you would be caught up in all of this." "Tai," she said with a worried look on her face, "I hoped you wouldn't be connected to it." "He has one of the keys." The other girl said, she looked strangely familiar. "Tai this is Yuffie, you remember her don't you?" Aeris asked him. "Vaguely." He replied. "Well it has been a while since we last met," the ninja girl said with a smile, "the last time I saw you, you were still in diapers." Tai starts to blush at this last sentence. Aeris notices her son's embarrassment and changes the subject. "Yuffie," she says looking at her friend, "which key does he have?" "Which do you think?" she replies, "you use a staff, and trained him to fight with one." Tai decides to just answer the questions quickly and holds out his hand where the mysterious Key-staff appears in his grasp again. "The key- staff," Aeris says looking at it in surprise, "the weapon of the guardian." That's when he remembers, "WAIT," he yells in surprise, "WHERE ARE MADISON, AND CION?" "It's ok." Says an almost emotionless voice as a figure enters the room, "they're right here." Tai looks up, from the voice and the attitude with it he expects to see Cloud Strife standing before him, but this is a new person he has come across. The man had shoulder length brown hair and a scar running diagonally across his nose. And he held a weapon that looked like it was a sword stuck on the barrel of a large magnum. "Tai!" Madison ran in and hugged 1him very firmly, "I was so worried I thought those things were going to kill you." "It's not going to be that easy to get rid of me." Tai says smiling at her. "That's what I told her." Cion says as he enters the room, "I have to admit that you earned my respect back there munchkin." "Apparently that's not all he earned." the mysterious man says as he looks at the weapon in Tai's hands. "How rude of me," Aeris says as she stands up, "Tai allow me to introduce my new friend Squall." "The names Leon." He says shortly. "Mom," Tai says turning to Aeris, "what were those things out there?" Aeris looks a little upset about the question but replies, "They are the Heartless and they are dreadful beings that have lost their hearts." "They're pure evil." Yuffie continues. "Hold on." Tai says suddenly a little annoyed, "You knew these things were coming and you didn't even bother to warn me?" "Tai," Aeris says looking down at her only child, "the reason I didn't want you to be in this was the fact that I knew you would have a dangerous journey before you. Now that you have that key you will have to journey to other worlds and help protect the citizens there." "I sense that another one of the others has arrived." Leon says standing up, "I'll get him." "One of the others?" Madison says looking confused. "You mean there is more than one of these key things?" Cion asks. "Yes," Aeris says glad to have something to take her mind off of the worry she has. "There are three keys," Yuffie says taking a seat in an empty chair, "a key-staff." "A key-blade." Aeris continues. "And then there are the key-shards." Leon finishes. "You see," Aeris says taking a seat on the bed, "millions of years ago a mighty warrior wielded the original key- blade, but its power grew too great and it was destroyed by the warrior who feared the worst of it." "Then the Key-staff and Key-blade were formed from the most of the left over energy." Yuffie states. "And the very last of the energy was scattered to the worlds as shards of the original key." Leon says before he walks out the door in order to find the other fighter. "Ok here's another question," Tai says looking at Yuffie and then to his mother, "how am I supposed to travel to other worlds?" "I can answer that," says a small almost squeak of a voice, "we can take the Gummy Ship I just finished making." "Umm. guys," Cion says looking around the room, "who said that?" "I did," says the voice, "over here." "Allow me to help." Yuffie says she reaches down and picks something up off of the bedside table. She holds out her hand and the three friends see a tiny mouse with blonde hair and goggles standing there. "This is Gadget," Aeris says to the three of them, "she will be accompanying you on your journeys Tai."(A.N. if you don't know who Gadget is she's the mouse girl on Rescue Rangers, you know that Chip and Dale cartoon.) "No offense to you Gadget," Tai says looking at her, "but aren't you a bit small to be fighting heartless?" "No silly," the little mouse girl says looking at him, "I'm coming to help keep track of your adventures with this." That's when Tai notices she has a very small laptop computer tied to her side. "I would also appreciate it if you and Madison went with him." Aeris says turning to face Cion, "After all you two are his friends, and it would help him to have someone around when things get tough." Cion nods at her, "Ok you can count on me Ms. Gainsborough." Aeris chuckles, "just call me Aeris ok?" Gadget jumps up and sits on Tai's shoulder, "Then I guess we're set." She says. "One more thing," Aeris says walking up to her son and looking him in the eye, "I'm very proud of you Tai, and I want you to take this with you. It's a good luck charm." She hands something to Tai. He looks down at it and sees that it's some sort of black and red jewel. "It's the pyro jewel." Aeris says looking at him. "Thank you." He says looking at her. Suddenly he feels a burning rushing through him and into the staff in his hands. "And now you know how to shoot fire balls with that weapon," Yuffie says looking at the child hero, "but keep it with you. It has another use." As the four of them are walking Tai finally quits staring at the gem he has and pockets it, then looks at Gadget, "So Gadget where is your Gummy ship anyway?" he says. "In the fourth district," she says turning to face him, "next to some sort of two story bar, and arcade." "HOW CAN IT BE RIGHT NEXT TO THE PLACE WE WORK," Cion says feeling foolish, "WITHOUT US NOTICING IT?!" "Oh," Tai says, "you mean that big blue and white thing with the wings jet and cockpit that's parked in the alley way next to the building?" "That's the one." Gadget says. "Yeah I've been wondering what that thing is." Madison says looking at the tiny mouse. "YOU MEAN I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T SEE IT?" Cion said now feeling even dumber. "That's about the size of it." Tai says starting to laugh at him.  
  
Suddenly another small army of heartless drops down in front of the friends. Cion and Tai step up to the front of the group to defend them. The first heartless dives and Cion catches it then smashes it's spine over his knee breaking it in half. The second one fares no better it lunges at Tai and he jumps ending up doing a hand-stand on the top of his staff then falls forward and slashes down with the staff crushing the creature right down the middle, and then spins around tripping two more over where Cion then stomps one of them crushing its rib cage and Tai stabs the second one through the head. While they are fighting Gadget starts typing information on the heartless they're fighting. Just then they hear a scream and turn to look. A big fat heartless dressed up like a soldier has Madison in its grip holding her over its head. Tai suddenly feels a rage in him like he has never felt before. The heartless suddenly vanishes and the staff takes a life of it's own and makes a movement as though locking Tai's heart, "Hey! What are you doing?!" Tai yells pulling the key out of his chest. "Looks to me like it's punishing you for not taking care of Madison." Cion says. Tai drops to the ground tears falling from his eyes, "M.m.m.m. MADISON!!!" he yells not knowing what to do. Tai rises to his feet tears still streaming down his cheek and dashes down the street with Cion following him. "Tai where are you going?" Cion yells at him. "That creature has got to be in this town somewhere, and I'm going to find it and rip it's head right off it's damn shoulders!" he yelled in rage.  
  
Well that's not the best way to start an adventure is it? And just where is Sora? Don't worry he'll show up soon enough like early next chapter. Well don't forget to review and let me know what you thought thanks. 


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